Last.fm & Pandora Radio

[lenaanthem]

So, does anyone use last.fm or Pandora?

Last.fm keeps track of music you listen to on your computer and then creates charts and recommends new artists to you based on that. It also creates a streaming radio station based on your music taste, and there are other radio stations you can listen to on the site too. And you can look at other users' profiles and see what they are listening to. I think it's pretty much the best thing ever.

Pandora is a radio service that recommends songs to you based on similar "musical attributes" like vocal harmonies, key tonality, etc. It's a cool idea, but I've tried using Pandora several times and it's never recommended me anything I liked. I know a lot of people really like it, though.

There's also liveplasma, where you enter a band/movie you like and it gives you a "map" of other things you might be interested in.

[december]

I use last.fm, however I never tag anything so its kinda pointless really, only useful to show how much I love pop music. Although I do love the radio function when my ipod is flat. I used to use pandora but the recommendations were sucky although I have heard if you have a eclectic taste in music it doesn't work as well as too many variables can through it off.

There is also musicovery and some other that I don't have saved. I used to waste time by putting an artist into all of them then seeing the different results. Some of them were crazy.

[Mutagen]

I looooooooooooooove Pandora.com, although I've definitely hit dry spells with that site - sometimes it's crappy song after crappy song, and I'm wondering why they think I like that shit. On the balance, though, Pandora's helped me discover a ton of artists I wouldn't have known about otherwise.

Another good internet radio site, for now at least, is Live 365. You can find lots and lots of genres of music, including some real niche stations (my personal favorite is the South Asian electronica station Asian Vibrations).

[biondetta]

I'm addicted to last.fm, even though a lot of the musicians I listen to these days aren't available to listen to on the site. Still, the neighbor station and recommendation stations have introduced me to a lot of new music. Plus, looking at the profiles of other users who listen to similar artists also helps introduce me to new stuff. Plus, I love seeing just how much I've listened to various artists and songs.

[duskwolf]

I do Pandora...although not as much as I used to. I started getting turned off when my stations started playing the same songs all the time.

[LAX]

i like pandora, but only in small doses. all the music sounds the same, but I guess that should be expected since they're picking music based on similarities. My hubby didn't have much luck with pandora, he's into 70s metal and they kept playing Phil Collins.

[Mutagen]

I introduced my coworker to Pandora and she had the same problem with repetitive songs. According to her, the trick is to only give thumbs-down ratings, to weed out songs. If you give a thumbs-up the song will repeat constantly.

I can't vouch for this because I'm a weirdo who likes hearing the same songs - in fact my problem with Pandora is exactly the opposite, when I tune in wanting to hear a specific song, and they play things that are totally different.

[GirlyGhoul]

OOH! I'm listenting to Pandora right now! They're playing Motorhead . I have mine set to play mostly hard/heavy rock, though I tweeked it so it will occationally throw some Adam Ant into the mix.

I could not survive the work day without Pandora (and CPMCoG )

If you like a song, but they play it too much, you do have a "sleeper" option. If you click on "Guide Us" there is one option that says "I'm tired of this song. Don't play it for a month."
That way you won't have to hear it everyday, but it won't be gone forever from your favorites list.

(WEEEE!! MY favorite song "Of Wolf and Man" just came on as I was typing this! And boss is gone! MA HA HA!! Cranks up!!)

I was just getting ready to whine that one thing I don't like is when they play a song you LOVE you can't have them play it instantly again. All you can do is say "I really like this song, play more like this!"

[sjankis630]

I have been using Pandora for a while now, but have lately been using it less and less. One of the problems is the fact that my company now blocks their site because of streaming restrictions. The other problem was I use a music streaming device at home called a squeezebox that I use to stream music from my computer in my basement to my bedroom up on the second floor, but discovered that although the music sounds OK on my computer speakers it leaves a lot to be desired on my home stereo. Pandora must be using barely 128Kps and it really shows on a good set of speakers. (cymbals and the like sound crappy)
Oh well,
I also have discovered much music which I have gone out and bought - CDs people CDs - and there are a few stations that I keep just because between them they seem to play the same 4-7 songs that I like. (they are old rap stations (Fat Boys, whodini, RUN DMC etc) and combined they manage to play the same 27 songs over and over. I just keep skipping songs between them until they play the four I like.